The evening grew but Mrs. Maxim's expression didn't change the slightest. She might as well be the closest thing to a corpse. I tried to approach her to pay my respects but she was always surrounded by old ladies with exaggerated make-up like those of witch's from the medieval times. They cried like someone just stabbed them in the liver. It seemed eerie to me, I wondered if they even knew the poor girl. Then suddenly Mrs. Maxim got up and walked up to me, which surprised me.
"Come with me", she said in a low cracked voice.
I could only nod in response and walked behind the lady.
I noticed that her posture was perfectly straight, she had a rigid physique despite her age. And suddenly this lady seemed incredibly strong to me.
We went inside the house, into the empty living room. She sat down and once again she was in trance.
"Ma'am?" I asked trying to break the nerve wrecking silence.
"Liars all of them. They didn't even know Sally's name yet they dare cry like that. Pathetic people, they're just after my husband's wealth and my poor Sally!" she dropped her face in her palms and wept.
Her burst of emotions took me aback but then again I was relieved for the fact that she was indeed human. I tried my best to comfort the poor lady until Samuel walked into the door.
His cold stare was as sharp as ever. For a moment he didn't say a word. Then finally he spoke:
"I have something to tell you inspector, may I have a moment?" he said so formally I had a hard time recognizing who he was talking to.
I followed him to the staircase, where he stopped abruptly and faced me.
"Have you found any culprits yet?"
"No, umm, I haven't started the investigation yet, I still have some interrogation…"
"I know who killed Sally" he said grimly.
"What?!"
"And the culprit even bothered attending the funeral" he spoke in a voice filled with utter disgust.
I paused. For a moment I saw a murderous look on his face, which softened as he clenched his fists.
"Alright Mr. Detective, here is the deal" Sam paused, slowly folding his arms he shifted his balance and stepped so close to me that I finally realized that this person was quite tall and his dark eyes, dominating.
"I will give you the names of the people involved in this case, I want you to find which one is the culprit. In return …" he pointed his long finger at my chest and said, "… even if you have to break yourself in the process, I want you to kill the culprit"
I immediately looked at him, finally noticing that I had been avoiding eye contact with him for quite a while now.
"Excuse me?" was all I could mutter till he grabbed me by the collar and forced me against the wall. I managed to save my nose from being broken but my teeth rattled as my jaw hit the wall.
He got close and whispered in my ear, "I'll text you the details later on, remember not to miss a soul".